1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to the field of telephonic communication, and more specifically to initiation of communication between two or more end points whose communication channel is network independent.
2. Description of the Related Art
The term telephone (from the Greek roots tele, “far,” and phone, “sound) was the first used to describe any apparatus for conveying sound to a distant point. Specifically, the word was applied as early as 1796 to a megaphone, and not long afterward to a speaking tube. The name string telephone was given some years after its invention (1667) to a device in which vibrations in a diaphragm caused by voice or sound waves are transmitted mechanically along a string or wire to a similar diaphragm that reproduces the sound. Still later, devices employing electric currents to reproduce at a distance the mere pitch of musical sounds were called telephones. Nowadays, the name is assigned almost exclusively to apparatus for reproducing articulate speech and other sounds at a distance through the medium of electric waves. The term telephony covers the entire art and practice of electrical speech transmission, including the many systems, accessories, and operating methods used for this purpose. Telecommunications broadens the concept still further to cover all types of communication including computer data, voice and facsimile.
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell successfully transmitted words using a variable resistance transmitter. In the 19th century, a very short time after the introduction of Bell's device, telephony provided connections to a relatively large number of users over relatively short distances. Today, telecommunications networks encompass a number of differing technologies just to establish a voice connection from point A to point B. For example, an end user is usually connected by way of a loop (twisted pair) to a local telephone exchange. The local exchange is then connected via a hierarchy of switching centers. The connection between the centers is called a trunk, which consists physically of cable, coax, fiber optic or microwave radio links. To connect from an end point in one city to an end point in another city the order of connection is as follows. The first end point connects with a local toll center, which in turn connects to a primary center. If the receiving end point is managed by this primary center, the call is directed to a local toll center for the recipient, and ultimately to the receiving end point. If the primary center does not manage the receiving end point, the call is passed to a sectional center. The sectional center then passes the call to a regional center to be passed back down to another sectional center, then to a primary center, and eventually to the local center responsible for the recipient end point.
Once a call leaves the local center to reach a recipient end point, the call is tagged as long distance, and the user who initiates the call is charged. Thus, for all long distance voice communication today, a user will be billed for the connection, by a long distance company who has contractual rights for time on the trunks.
In contrast to this scenario, modern data communications between computers is typically provided via data networks, rather than telephone networks, where charges are associated with the speed of the connection, and the quantity of data transferred over the connection. That is, end to end connection between computers is provided over a relatively cost free data network, commonly referred to as the internet. However, the types of connections available over the internet are typically associated with computer data types such as email, web pages, etc. Although some development has been made to encode voice information for transfer over the internet, unified messaging (voice, email, fax) over a data network is still unavailable. In addition, even where voice, email and fax messaging is available, there is a strict correlation between end point communication devices that must be maintained. That is, a telephone must communicate with another telephone, a fax machine with another fax machine, and an email client with another email client. So, a voice capable computer is unable to communicate with a remote telephone, because the two devices are communicating over separate networks (telephone and data).
What is needed is a method and apparatus that allows communication devices to be connected, regardless of the type of device desiring the connection, and regardless of the typical network upon which the device communicates. In addition what is needed is the ability to initiate voice communication, and voice conferencing, utilizing a data connection to select the end devices. Such an apparatus and method would allow cost free long distance voice connections, using a data network, from either computing, or telephony devices, initiated by either a computing or telephony device.